New month, new banner! This was created by Christine, who’s done so many of my banners lately.
Thanks, Christine! You rock!
(And Sofia, I’m going to use the banner you made in August. I haven’t forgotten you and your adorable banner!)
Sights from around Crooked Acres.
One day’s haul. What I did with all this stuff:
Zucchini: shredded and sealed in Foodsaver bags (1 cup in each bag) and stored in the freezer. I’ll use shredded zucchini in various and sundry dishes through the winter – tossed in spaghetti sauce, hidden in casseroles, or sauteed with onion and garlic. You can blanch shredded zucchini before freezing it, but I don’t. I live dangerously that way.
Cucumbers made into bread and butter pickles, and refrigerator dill pickles.
Yellow squash cut into slices and sealed in Foodsaver bags, then stored in the freezer. I’ll sauté this with onion and garlic over the winter. You can blanch the squash before freezing it if that floats your boat, but I find that it makes the squash mushy.
Scalloped/ pattypan squash boiled until tender, drained, and then mashed. Drained it some more, then measured by 2 cups into Foodsaver bags, froze, and then used the Foodsaver to seal the bags. We’ll eat it heated up, sprinkled with salt and pepper and a handful of cheese.
(I don’t think scalloped squash is nearly as flavorful as yellow squash, and have requested that next year we only have a couple of scalloped squash plants and more yellow squash plants.)
Someone wanted to see this plate. I got two of these plates from my parents a couple of weeks ago, and I use one every morning to eat breakfast. It’s the perfect size! (I don’t know if you can tell from the picture, but the sides are kind of curved up a little, rather than being perfectly flat.)
Tomatoes have FINALLY started to ripen. I picked some of them even though they weren’t quite completely ripe, and they’re sitting in the pantry ripening. I used the ripest one of the bunch to have a tomato sandwich for lunch yesterday. SO good.
The garden. Behind the garden, on the right side, is our neighbor’s shed. In the middle is her house. (Beyond her house is the road.)
Good lord. Could I have gotten any farther from the garden? Can you SEE anything?? In any case, that huge, bushy row on the left is spaghetti squash. Next to that, the row of tomatoes. Next, the okra (which has just started coming in), then two rows of yellow squash, pattypan squash, and zucchini. Behind the squash are the pepper plants.
Yellow squash/ pattypan/ zucchini on the left. In the middle, three sad little eggplant plants. Behind that, the bare row where the beans were growing (Fred pulled them up and planted more beans), and then to the right, the corn. I didn’t get a shot of the last row – we’re growing a few cucumber plants, and a long row of rutabagas. I’ve never had rutabagas, but I like most root vegetables, so I’m assuming I’ll like those. Fingers crossed!
Baby pattypan squash. I think they’re adorable – they look like little spaceships, ready to take off.
Wee cucumber.
Spaghetti squash.
Little yellow squash.
Squash flowers, and one hard-working bee.
My raised beds, behind the back yard. The two tall beds each have three tomato plants in them. The short bed on the left (front) is my herb garden (thyme, basil, rosemary, and cilantro), and the other short bed (right) is my catnip bed. Supposedly. I planted catnip there, and nothing’s come up yet. SIGH.
Remember, Thursdays are “Sights from Around Crooked Acres” day for at least the rest of the summer. If there’s something you’re dying to see and I haven’t put up a picture of it, feel free to make a request. And those of you who’ve made requests, fear not. I’m keeping your requests in mind, I just haven’t gotten around to snapping the pictures.
Sarah asked for a diagram of the property, and I did post one a few years ago, but it’s oddly drawn and out of date (there was no big coop in the back forty!), so I’m going to draw another one. It might be a little while before I get a chance to post it, but I promise it’s coming!
And those of you who asked for an updated house & property tour, I’ll start that in mid-July once things settle down ’round these parts.
We’re edging ever closer to tomorrow morning, when the Rescuees will be going off to the adoption center. They don’t seem terribly concerned, though.
I could have fit a few more cats on that desk, don’t you think?
“What?”
Such a serious little face.
Bolitar, at home wherever he happens to land.
Pretty Lieu, in the sun. (And yes, Elayne, we pronounce it “loo” – he’s named after Lieutenant Kenny Shea in Rescue Me, who the guys call “Lieu.” I had no idea that the Queen’s-English version is pronounced “leff”!)
Previously
2009: Mister Boogers.
2008: I find that I’m filled with hatred a lot these days.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: That Tom Cruise. What a fuckin’ loon, huh?
2004: Jesus christ. After almost five years of marriage, wouldn’t you think he’d KNOW that there are only two ways to answer that question?
2003: And then she vaulted her portly ass across me to say good morning to him, cracking three of my ribs in the process.
2002: We went to see Minority Report on Saturday, and though I really liked it, I did NOT enjoy sitting next to Billy Bob ShutTheFuckUp, who was compelled, when not clearing his throat loudly and phlegmily, to remark upon each and every plot point.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.